Denmark's Rainbow Band was formed in late 1969 as a supergroup consisting of Peer Frost
(ex-Young Flowers), Lars Bisgaard (ex-Maxwells), Carsten Smedegaard
(ex-Beefeaters), Bent Hesselmann and the former jazz players Niels Brønsted and Bo Stief (they had backed American jazz musicians at Copenhagen's
Café Montmartre). The idea was to play jazz-influenced progressive rock in the style of
Burnin' Red Ivanhoe and Traffic's second album. These influences were strongly evident on their 1970 album. It's a very good effort, still very indicative of the hippie era. The rhythm section still produced the powerful 60s beat, forcing Peer Frost to squeeze out some of his best guitar solos. Lars Bisgaard was replaced by Allan Mortensen
(ex-Tears) at the end of 1970. A Canadian group was already using the name
Rainbow Band, which forced the Danish group to change their name into Midnight Sun in July 1971. Surprisingly enough, they decided to remake their first album instead of moving on to new material.

The second version of the album is less powerful and stylistically creeping towards
Blood, Sweat & Tears, mostly due to the vocals and supplementary electric piano. Only the second version of
"Living On The Hill" was on par with the previous recording.

With another new vocalist, Frank Lauridsen, Midnight Sun made two more albums of jazzy progressive rock.

Albums:

Rainbow Band:

Rainbow Band, 1970 Sonet SLPS 1523
(Released in the UK as the first album by Midnight Sun(!) on MCA (MKPS 2019) in 1971)

Taken from Scented Gardens of the Mind - A guide to the Golden Era of Progressive Rock (1968-1980) in more than 20 European
Countries, by Dag Erik Asbjørnsen, Borderline Productions, ISBN 1-899855-12-2